Splosh Site - BACK WORKING PROPERLY!

[BillShipton]

Yes, we know that service on the site, particularly the forum, is slow and occasionally non-existant BUT WE ARE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

In layman's terms (ie ones I understand) it seems that we have filled up our server with so much custard it is full to the brim and pouring more in spills onto the table and upsets the hosts, so they are restricting the flow of custard into it. The answer apparently is to get a bigger newer more efficient one that holds more custard so more of you can all splash about at the same time. Failing that, we have to get one of our very own and have the whole place to ourselves - then we can play with as much custard as we like.

Sadly one is expensive and the other very expensive.

But over the next couple of weeks we hope to be trying option one first and then if after a while Our Server Says...wah waaah! then we will have to go for the second.

God knows how we'll pay for it, but we will be giving it a try.

[Splattella]

Thanks for doing something about it Bill cos, truthfully, it's not been that good recently.

I'm no good at IT stuff cos my brain is chock full of custard but if it's too expensive maybe you could delete old stuff from the site that's not been looked at in years and free up some space. Or is that just an IT virgin being really dumb?

[deleteaccount]

deleted

[BillShipton]

Think of it like a motorway, at the moment, the site is constantly getting a traffic jam, and what is needed is a new lane, but a new lane is expensive and might not solve the issue as well as we like, we just have to hope that it does

Or get our own motorway just for us which is VERY expensive!

Yes, I know how bad it is. I'm here every day and had the same problems as everyone else. But something will get done soon.

[messyalan]

Well I for one would be sad to lose a valuable site so I would be prepared to pay a small yearly fee to keep the site going

[TottyMcGee]

Cheap subscription fees (or at least a donation button) could be an option - we'd be up for that. Thinking about it, this is about the only forum I can think of that isn't ad supported, even by Adsense, a principle worth supporting. Though if you do start taking on advertising, we recommend asking Birds or Heinz for a sponsorship deal.

[BillShipton]

Oh, it won't be going away, messyalan. Least I hope not. What would I do with my life (bearing in mind it's a hot, sunny day, there's a beach over the road and I'm indoors typing - which says a lot about me!).

I find the begging buttons on forums a bit tacky myself but perhaps there could be some form of discreet advertising or paid-for service here. I hate everything being plastered with ads though. We don't even put our own up!

Will have to get my commercial head on, Aunt Sally.

[BillShipton]

Whisper it very, very softly but Muckypup might just have found what the problem is and be on the way to curing it. It seems quicker already but lets not tempt fate (did that last time!!)

[messyjojo]

Can I just say that despite the technical problems with the site, this is still the friendliest, funniest and user friendly site out there!! You do a sterling job, Bill, what with all that custard sloshing about, sploshee's sliding about and the general madness that pervades Sunny St Leonards! Hoping Muckypup gets it sorted without too much hassle or cost.....

[BillShipton]

Since this is the 69,000th post on the forum, it's good to make it a happy one!

The forum and the rest of the website now works properly again!

And contrary to the hard selling techniques of our hosting company, IT WASN'T OUR FAULT!

A brilliant bit of detective work (after some very mild breaking and entering) by Muckypup discovered that one of the 'dead' sites we share a server with was being spammed over 1,000 times a day and it was them slowing the site down not us! Okay, you guys still use a LOT of bandwidth especially at weekends, but perfectly manageably. Clearing out the spam on the dead site and adding a filter on their behalf has brought us back up to speed!

So now you can post pictures again, visit Channel Free and buy stuff at the shop (please!) without having to wait forever (or more likely without giving up, swearing profusely and vowing never to return - in which case I'm wasting my time writing this).

My enormous thanks (again) to Muckypup who refused to believe that a site as weedy as ours (I prefer 'exclusive') needed the lavish facilities the server said (which would have cost a lot more money without solving the problem at all).

My apologies for all the previous delays, and it's all further proof if you want something solved properly, do it yourself (or rather get someone who cares, not somebody keen to sell you stuff!)

Bill

[Splattella]

Yay! I think we should all club together and send Muckypup a nice big barrel of custard as a thank you!

[Spinynorman and Frilly]

Blimey!

It is as quick as a quick thing tonight.

Well done Muckypup and as ever cheers to Bill.

[wampony]

I wondered what had happened to the forum, every time I got chance to go on-line and visit here I got error messages. I was beginning to think someone had done a runner with the site!
Glad to see you all back.

[BillShipton]

I hope this is the dramatic epilogue to this story....

After a day and a half of the forum working properly, this afternoon I received an e-mail from our credit card billing company entitled "Status Change" and informing us that our account had been suspended and they weren't accepting any orders on our behalf.

"Holy shit!" I cried (and a lot worse I can tell you). "You get one bit working and then it all falls apart again!" So I wrote demanding to know why we had been suspended.

Three very long, sweary hours later (ie about 20 mins ago) I got a reply

"Oh sorry, this was an administrative error. Your account has not been suspended and is working fine."

Is it any wonder I have no hair left?

[Miss T]

Well done Mucky.... I can now catch up on the posts I have been trying to put up for the last couple of weeks